52 NortH CaroLina Troops, 1861-65.

but had to abandon it or be captured. He, however, carried
back four or five hundred prisoners and several flags.

The Eighteenth captured the flag of the artillery.

When we got back to the lines, near the court house, Ma-
hone rode out and claimed the flags, which were refused him.
He afterwards had a correspondence through army headquar-
ters concerning them, which was “held up” on account of
“anparliamentary language” that got into it. General Lee
and the Secretary of War acknowledged receipt of the flags
from Lane’s brigade, a few days after the battle.

The Richmond papers teemed with accounts of Mahone’s
magnificent achievements in the afternoon and accredited to
other Virginia commands the honor of stopping the break
in the lines of the morning.

Pertinent to this, though personal, the following extract
from the narrative of a Michigan colonel is inserted here.
After stating how his company was captured and recaptured
at Chancellorsville, 3 May, 1863, and for supposed gal-
lantry, he was promoted major, which he protested, continu-
ing, says:

“As nothing else would do, I was, in a manner, forced to
accept this promotion and in a few days was commissioned
lieutenant-colonel ‘for gallantry and meritorious conduct in
the presence of the enemy.’ In the following winter I was
appointed to the coloneley of a ‘crack’ regiment. I would
not be speaking the truth if I should say that these promo-
tions did not touch my vanity and make me zealous, not only
to maintain but to acquire more of the ‘bubble reputation at
the cannon’s mouth.’

“Tt was with an assumed feeling of arrogance and con-
tempt of danger that I led my regiment to the attack on Lee’s
salient 12 May, 1864, at Spottsylvania Court House.
By the crack of dawn on that morning, before the
Johnnies were fully awake, we were right in among them in
a hand to hand encounter, capturing a great number of pris-
oners and quickly had possession of all, or nearly all of both
wings of this famous salient, the breastworks of which faced
to the front and rear. We had Lee’s army now practically
eut in two, an advantage which, if it had been followed up

EIGHTEENTH REGIMENT, 53

promptly, would, as I have thought, have had the effect of
terminating the war at a much earlier date. While we were
engaged in arranging to hold our newly acquired position in
the captured Confederate works, and in reforming the troops
for a further advance an attack was made on our flank and
rear, which by its suddenness and vigor struck panic to the
troops between the position held by my regiment and the at-
tacking party, which sent them pouring pell mell back upon
my men in a wild, confused mass. Every soldier knows
something of the demoralizing effect of an enfilade fire, such
as the Confederates had on our line, and the further fact, that
a stampede of panic-stricken troops is as uncontrollable as
that of the herds on the western plains. I was drawing out
my line at an angle from their former position in order to
check the Confederate advance, when I was shot down, re-
ceiving this wound in the hip, from the effects of which in the
opinion of nerve specialists, I will never fully recover. My
own men, brave and tried soldiers, though they were, caught
up the contagion and joined in the headlong flight, for be-
fore a proper alignment could be made, the Confederates were
among them, sweeping by and beyond me as I lay wounded
upon the ground, and shooting to kill, as was evidenced by
the large number of fallen Federals on the spot. I felt mor-
tified and chagrined when I saw this small body of Confed-
erates, for they did not number more than about fifty or sixty
men, by brave and skillful management, put to rout many
times their number of our men. But I was particularly im-
pressed by their youthful leader as he passed by where I

lay, his countenance glowing with the enthusiasm of a

school boy going out upon the play ground for a game of

ball, shouting ‘forward men!’ rushing on with his little band

like an avalanche to what seemed certain destruction. He

reminded me of the pictures I had seen in my old school his-

tory in my boyhood days. I admire bravery even in a foe,

and this I would call true gallantry such as was seldom wit-
nessed in either army in the many battles of the Civil War.

I am aware that some Virginia troops claim by an attack in

front of our position to have regained their lost ground, but
I know the fact that their attack was not made until after I